“BOSTON (AP) — Slow as molasses? This treacle didn’t trickle. It was a sticky, deadly tsunami that flattened an entire Boston neighborhood within seconds.
On Tuesday, the city marks the 100th anniversary of its most peculiar disaster — the Great Molasses Flood.
It struck without warning at midday on Jan. 15, 1919, when a giant storage tank containing more than 2.3 million gallons (8.7 million liters) of molasses suddenly ruptured, sending a giant wave of goop crashing through the cobblestone streets of the bustling North End.
The initial wave rose at least 25 feet high (7.6 meters high) — nearly as tall as an NFL goalpost — and it obliterated everything in its path, killing 21 people and injuring 150 others. Rivets popped like machine-gun fire. Elevated railway tracks buckled. Warehouses and firehouses were pushed around like game pieces on a Monopoly board. Tenements were reduced to kindling…”
I wasn’t familiar with this but am very familiar with oil & gas storage tanks design and maintenance. I would be interested in reading a more technical failure analysis of the tank.
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Posts: 23941 | Location: Northern Suburbs of Houston | Registered: November 14, 2005
It's been a while since I read the book, but they do go into the tank issue very heavily. As I recall it was a fifty foot tank. Apparently they didn't calculate the loads correctly. There were many indicators of issues that the company ignored. They even painted the tank brown to hide the constant leaks.
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Posts: 17944 | Location: Virginia | Registered: June 02, 2006
One of my very close friends who eventually published a number of books on Boston started with this event as his first book. The book is called Dark Tide: The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919 as mentioned above. If this event is one you want to know the details that's the book.
“So in war, the way is to avoid what is strong, and strike at what is weak.”
Back in the day, my father's father's father marked their hardships by comparison to disasters. Boston's molasses tank rupture. The Chester PA Fireworks Factory Explosion, Feb 1882. Various fires. Oral history used to be everyday conversation.
Who are today's historians. Does everyone assume we'll always be able to 'look it up on the web"?
Speaking of historians: I just read Isaac's Storm by Erik Larson. The Galveston hurricane. While 2/3rds of the book got skimmed, the actual hurricane hit was remarkably described.
_____________________________ Pledge allegiance or pack your bag! The problem with Socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money. - Margaret Thatcher Spread my work ethic, not my wealth
Posts: 7100 | Location: South East, Pa | Registered: July 04, 2002
I vaguely remember this incident being used in a chemistry text or physics text as an example of P,V,T-pressure, volume, temperature.
A most unexpected and unfortunate way to die.
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye". The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupery, pilot and author, lost on mission, July 1944, Med Theatre.
Posts: 6036 | Location: Central Texas | Registered: September 14, 2003
Heard of this a long time ago. Word was that part of the town smelled like molasses for years. The stuff had soaked into the structures, cobbled streets, everywhere.
Posts: 2167 | Location: south central Pennsylvania | Registered: November 05, 2008
Originally posted by zoom6zoom: It's been a while since I read the book, but they do go into the tank issue very heavily. As I recall it was a fifty foot tank. Apparently they didn't calculate the loads correctly. There were many indicators of issues that the company ignored. They even painted the tank brown to hide the constant leaks.
It seems to come down to poor construction. The tank was built in a hurry. The steel used was to brittle and too thin. The person overseeing the construction couldn’t even read a blueprint. Testing the tank, by filling it with water wasn’t done. The tank leaked from the start. So much that people regularly collected molasses from the leaks and the tank was painted brown to hide the leaks. The tank had been topped off with molasses delivered from the far South. That plus fermentation, increased the viscosity. Hence the speed.
Originally posted by Gustofer: What I want to know is why they had the need for that much molasses? That stuff is horrid! (Except in mom's molasses cookies...dang those were good.)
The article explains it, it was used for making industrial alcohol and other products.
Posts: 35143 | Location: Pennsylvania | Registered: November 12, 2007
